


cold and monumental

by jasperjorgen



Series: stand and watch it burn [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 21:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6300988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasperjorgen/pseuds/jasperjorgen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux and Ren clash for the first time under the First Order. Children are petty, even children with ideologies, and these two are no different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	cold and monumental

**Author's Note:**

> title is, of course, from the phantom of the opera

“These events are constructed to raise morale, as well as provide infrastructure for ceremonial affairs.” To this Hux nodded politely, being well versed in the nature of “Imperial” balls. He had grown up with his only insight into his parents’ personalities being ranks, titles, and promotions accompanied by flimsy photographs of tall, somber people in a ballroom much like the one he was in. The same quarter would have been used for any occasion requiring its high ceilings and smooth paneled steel floors– now scoured to a mirror shine and everything perfectly black, white, navy blue. Each attendee was a dark dot dancing upon the blank expanse. It was Hux’s third time donning the appropriate dress uniform (the trousers having been lengthened twice since,) and the second sipping tasteless bubble liquor from a vial. However, it was his first receiving a formal introduction– a bit of a surprise, without someone he expected to meet. In such an introduction, he could be meeting anyone from a future spouse, current coworker, or former relative– siblings who trained in different programs were sometimes known to need help recognizing each other after a split. 

Whom he stood uncomfortably face-to-face with, though,  could not at all have been a brother. He looked nothing like Hux, who was tall, but was even taller, with dark, wary eyes and insolent hair that obscured them halfway. He shook hands with a twist-clench, meant to be painful, signalling only animosity to the skeptical sergeant–he was not even yet a knight, yet still! Furthermore, he neglected to return Hux’s light bow, probably deliberately, and Hux internally cursed himself for his show of deference, hearing a title after  _ Kylo _ – what a name– that denoted him as nothing more than Hux’s equal. It would have been difficult if he’d been caught groveling at the feet of an  _ equal _ .

Thankfully, the truth was that neither of them was receiving much attention at that point. While he did not intend to languish long in his rank, Hux suspected it wouldn’t be until he achieved at least the title “lieutenant” that more than two eyes would ever be looking at him at once. He grit his teeth and entertained their stilted conversation, though it became taxing as Ren’s impatience started to show, crossing and uncrossing his legs and letting his eyes drift down away from Hux’s. Though he usually had a high tolerance for such unpleasantries, Hux grew irritated in unease. He stopped tacking Ren’s name onto the end of his sentences, and after listening to an hour of particularly incoherent, vexation-fueled drivel, thought,  _ This religious devout doesn’t know how severely he’s being used. _

Immediately, he felt an invasive push in his head, like something from the corners of his vision– determined and defensive, it was  _ Ren _ rifling through his mind like a child scrabbling at the bottom of a toy chest.

“Oh,  _ hell no, _ ” Hux breathed, knowing full well that when it came to the Force, there was nothing he could do. It occupied a different plane, one he was entirely unconcerned with. But “ _ –don’t do that! _ ” something was stabbing against his amygdala, and Ren wouldn’t withdraw. In any other circumstances he would have withdrawn his blaster on the assailant, punched him, or just maybe just turned and run, but he was totally immobilized, withering in the corner of the polished paneled walls.

“What do you  _ think _ you believe?” Ren snarled, and they both knew what Ren had uncovered, Hux’s cheeks draining in horror. “You,” he continues, “you who have never left this godforsaken ship in your  _ life _ ?”

Long days spent staring out the viewing ports with yearning, stars drifting past like the inexorably waltzing couples before them. Even longer nights in the Academy archives, fearful, devastated, crying from exhaustion and so many attempts to hammer talent into his own head. Ren saw his life, sensed it, remembered it, and had the audacity, the boorishness to  _ gloat _ . “Let me tell you,” Ren continued as he leaned in, probably to savor Hux’s terrified mien, “how little you know about me pales to how little you know of your own leader. How little you’ve  _ seen _ . You’re nothing but a–”

Not with the Force but with his hands, Hux shoved Ren sharply, petty but effective in dissolving his control. He jerked back in surprise, looking incredulous.

Hux should have left there and then and blamed the Force user’s inappropriate exercise for their dispute. Instead, perhaps impetuously, he grabbed Ren by the collar, drawing him to an equal height, to searing eye contact. Now Ren was the one gasping in the grip of the other, and Hux hissed with as much venom as he could muster, “How dare you insinuate that I’m  _ inexperienced.” _

The shot in the dark struck right where he intended, and Hux released his grip and departed, striding away through mingling crowds without a glance backwards. The shocked apprentice left to brood, Hux had almost no trouble eliminating the marks the Force left on him. Having fled to his own quarters, a few stanzas of traditional music and the sound of crackling loudspeakers helped restore his natural state of mind. He even meditated a little, and it calmed him and cooled his embarrassment. For such a monumental power, of such extraordinary magnitude and scope, its wielder was, Hux thought, decidedly tempestuous and  _ jealous. _


End file.
